[Psychodynamics of "masked" responses on the Rorschach test in adults]

Despite of their importance, "mask" answers to the Rorschach test, suspected but not studied by H. Rorshach, retained the attention of R. Kuhn (1944) in his classical book. The present study concerns 43 adults of both sexes, from a total of 605 adults (6.9%) examined for various nevrotic disturbances, who gave, at least, one single "mask" response to this test. Following a detailed analysis of the characteristics of their rorschachogrammes, the author underlines that these relatively rare responses exhibit: a) difficulties or conflicts in relation with problems of "being seen", "being judged", "unmasked" by others, or b) in relation with difficulties arising from inferiority feelings and complexes, ambiguities or dissimulations.